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 Throughout its history, capitalism never succeeded in preventing recurring economic cycles or crises.  However, they were usually contained within the system.  Economic crises usually did not become social crises; the system itself was usually not called into question.  Transition to a different system was then an idea kept away from public discussion, a project kept from public action.  During cyclical downturns production was reduced, unemployment and bankruptcies rose, deflation often hit and hurt, and mass working-class suffering spread.  Downturns typically drove down wages and the prices of productive inputs.  Eventually, those declines provided sufficient profit opportunities for employers to resume production.  Then downturns became upturns, the unemployed (or at least some of them) were rehired, and prosperity replaced depression until the next cyclical downturn (usually within a few years).  Before the 1930s, government interventions to offset or manage downturns were mostly marginal, minor and sporadic.  Mass resignation to endure "hard times" was the norm, although voices for fighting back were also evident.